Cryptocurrency
Bitcoin is highly volatile, illiquid, supports digital Euro – European Central Bank
The ECB leader has acknowledged the gains of having blockchain technology in play but is critical about Bitcoin and other Cryptos.
European Central Bank (ECB) leader, Christine Lagarde, is leading the campaign for a digital euro but doesn’t see the flagship crypto, Bitcoin, and other cryptos as ideal for payment.
The ECB leader acknowledged the gains of having blockchain technology in play, but was critical about Bitcoin and other cryptos, particularly on the bias that it’s too volatile to be used in making payments.
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“The main risk lies in relying purely on technology and the flawed concept of there being no identifiable issuer or claim. This also means that users cannot rely on crypto-assets maintaining a stable value: they are highly volatile, illiquid, speculative, and so do not fulfill all the functions of money,” Lagarde said.
In this COVID-19 era, Lagarde has declared her support for the digitalization of the Euro, elaborating deeper on what a digital euro could do, such as providing its citizens unrestricted access to money that is backed by a central bank, and allowing the Euro geopolitical area to maintain its monetary status quo.
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“It could be important in a range of future scenarios, from a decline in the use of cash to pre-empting the uptake of foreign digital currencies in the euro area. Issuing a digital euro might become necessary to ensure both continued access to central bank money and monetary sovereignty.
“A properly designed digital euro would create synergies with the payments industry and enable the private sector to build new businesses based on digital euro-related services,” Lagarde added.
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What you should know
- Some weeks back, Christine Lagarde gave a strong indication that the ECB could create its cryptocurrency within a few years, in what would be a systematical change to the euro zone’s financial system.
- Lagarde hinted that it could take two to four years before the project begins, as it would address concerns over privacy, money laundering, and the technology involved.
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Cryptocurrency
Altcoins giving investors weekly returns of at least 100%
4 cryptos are outperforming Bitcoin by a long distance, having registered weekly gains of more than 100% at press time.
Cryptocurrency
Unknown whale moves $440 million worth of Bitcoin as institutional buying drops
Data retrieved from Btc Blockbot revealed the wealthy entity moved 7,970 BTC worth $440 million in block 681,99.
Wealthy investors have increased their transactional volume just as a Bitcoin whale moved about $440 million some hours ago. The world’s most popular crypto asset hovers around $54,500.
Data retrieved from Btc Blockbot revealed the wealthy entity moved 7,970 BTC worth $440 million in block 681,99.
Whale alert! 🐋 Someone moved 7,970 BTC ($440M) in block 681,990 https://t.co/7i5oUdrpic
— Bitcoin Block Bot (@BtcBlockBot) May 5, 2021
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In the past few weeks, the flagship crypto has relatively experienced a significant amount of selling pressure after touching $58, 0000 and plummeting as low as $47,000, suggesting that institutional inflow on the world’s most popular crypto asset seems to be faltering.
Adding credence to the weakening buying spree is data retrieved from Glassnode postulating that the Bitcoin number of Addresses holding 10+ Coins just reached a 4-year low of 147,046
The previous 4-year low of 147,094 was observed on 03 May 2021.
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At the time of writing Bitcoin traded at $54,465.57 on the FTX exchange with a daily trading volume of about $70 billion. For the week, the flagship crypto asset is up by just 0.35% and it remains by far the most valuable crypto by market value with a valuation of $1.018 trillion.
Recent data reveal Bitcoins older than 6-months have not seen a meaningful increase in spending since the correction back in February, meaning long-term holders have paused their buying actions momentarily.
Previous instances of similar spending behaviour were observed during the December 2020 consolidation, just before breaking to a new all-time high, and during the first bull market correction in January.
What you must know
At the flagship crypto market, traders or investors who hold large amounts of bitcoins are typically referred to as whales.
This means that a BTC whale would be an individual or business entity (with a single Bitcoin address) owning around 1000 Bitcoins or more.
Usually, as these whales accumulate the flagship crypto assets, Bitcoin’s circulating supply reduces, and this can weaken any bearish trend the crypto asset finds itself in.
